The flogging of a Saudi blogger will not occur as scheduled on Friday because a team of doctors is concerned for the man's health, three people familiar with the situation tell Mashable.

The blogger, Raif Badawi, was arrested in 2012 after writing articles critical of Saudi Arabia's clerics on a liberal blog he created, which has since been shut down. He was found guilty of breaking Saudi Arabia's technology laws and insulting Islamic religious figures through the website.

He was sentenced in 2013 to seven years in prison and 600 lashes, but after an appeal the judge stiffened the punishment in May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Badawi was also fined 1 million Saudi riyals, or roughly $266,000.

Protesters in Berlin demonstrate against the detention of Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger sentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashings for his blog criticizing clerics.

Image: Imago/Zuma Press

The delay marks the second time in two weeks that doctors have put a halt to the flogging, which the top United Nations human rights official called "a form of cruel and inhuman punishment."

Saudi Arabia is a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Badawi was struck 50 times with a stick in the first set of lashes, Dr. Elham Manea, a friend and spokesperson of the family, told Mashable on Thursday.

"The first lashing session was tough — it took a toll on his fragile body," she said. "His health condition is not that good at all. We are glad that this medical examination has confirmed that he is not fit to be flogged again."

Surreptitiously recorded video of the incident surfaced on YouTube showing Badawi, standing in the middle of a large crowd, being repeatedly struck by a Saudi official while another tells the crowd "cellphone use is prohibited." The crowd then cries, "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great).

The medical committee that examined Badawi at a hospital in Jeddah concluded that he had high blood pressure and his wounds had not healed, Sara Hashash, who serves as Amnesty International's spokesperson for the region, told Mashable. This compelled them to tell the authorities there that he should not be flogged.

But Badawi "remains at risk" as long as his sentence stands, Hashash said, and the medical committee's recommendation is not legally binding. "As far as we are aware there has been no official action or recent announcements from the Saudi Arabian authorities on his case," she said.

Ali Rizvi, a Toronto writer in touch with Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, told Mashable that she hasn't spoken to Badawi in three weeks, ever since he was moved to a different jail just before the first flogging.

She has been an outspoken critic of his case, calling on the Saudi government to free him and coordinating demonstrations outside of Saudi embassies around the world.

"Although this is good news, we're only cautiously hopeful," Rizvi said in an email on Thursday. "The Saudis know how the media cycle works and how short people's attention span is. They may just ride out the international attention, and once the outcry subsides, there's no telling what they'll do."

Haidar told The Guardian on Wednesday that the case was taking a toll on her. “I feel destroyed. But I don’t want to sit in a corner and cry,” she said at her home in Quebec, Canada, where she lives as a refugee with the couple's three children. “That would be letting Raif and my children down.”

Amnesty International called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to free the blogger. Nearly 800,000 people have signed an Amnesty petition calling for his release. Others have continued demonstrating at the embassies.

"Instead of continuing to torment Raif Badawi by dragging out his ordeal with repeated assessments the authorities should publicly announce an end to his flogging and release him immediately and unconditionally," said Said Boumedouha, a deputy director for Amnesty.

"Raif Badawi is still at risk," Boumedouha said in a statement. "There is no way of knowing whether the Saudi Arabian authorities will disregard the medical advice and allow the flogging to go ahead."

The U.S. State Department says it is aware of Badawi's case.

State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke said Friday that the U.S. is "greatly concerned" that Badawi was lashed for simply "exercising his rights of freedom of expression and religion" and called on Saudi officials to reconsider the case.

"We call on Saudi authorities to cancel this brutal punishment and to review Badawi’s case and the sentence," Rathke said.

Eight U.S. senators sent a letter to King Abdullah on Friday to express their "deep concern" over the country's use of "obsolete blasphemy and apostasy laws to suppress the fundamental human rights of Saudi citizens" and urge an immediate halt to Badawi's "barbaric punishment."

"We value the important partnership between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on many critical issues," the senators wrote. "However, any further violence or criminal proceedings against Saudi citizens expressing nonviolent freedoms of speech and religion will unfortunately be a source of continued divergence between our two countries."

Dr. Manea, the family spokesperson, said that stopping the flogging was an immediate priority. But they want to see Badawi — as well as his lawyer, who received 15 years for "doing his job" — released.

"The main demand is for him to be freed, to drop all charges against him, as he did not do anything wrong," she said. "He expressed an opinion. He wrote a blog. It is outrageous that he will spend 10 years and given 1,000 lashes. All of this for expressing an opinion."

"The main aim is to see see all charges against him dropped."

Badawi's case was referred to the country's Supreme Court after an appeals court upheld his sentence. That decision, Manea said, came before he was lashed, but only made public after the uproar in the week after his first lashing session. The court can now uphold the verdict; overturn it and refer the case back to the appeals court; or dismiss the case and order his release, Amnesty's Hashash explained.

Until the health concerns, however, the lashings were scheduled to continue.

"Maybe that could be an indication that things could move forward," added Manea. "That is our hope at least."

"All we know is that the family is very distraught and angry that the lashings took place, but surprised by the international reaction."

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